What you should know about Instagram’s algorithm(s)

Hey folks👋🏽

A week of back-to-back updates (looking at you, Instagram) had me thinking we were seeing a social media renaissance. Then I remembered that VidCon, the highly-anticipated creator economy event, is next week, so I calmed down. We’ll probably see a return to form once it’s passed (or maybe this is the new status quo 🤷🏾).

💌 In today’s email:

• 🤖 Instagram shared how their algorithm(s) work — here’s what you need to know
• 📱 Mitra recommends a trending sound
• 📣 What’s happening in social: Instagram may be the new Myspace, creators can now monetize faster on YouTube, TikTok opens up a new feature
• +All our latest content from the blog

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

P.S. We’re still accepting guest posts! Check out our guidelines and send in your pitches.

🪴 Four creators skyrocketing growing for fun with Buffer

We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for entrepreneurs and business owners to grow on social media — and our users were more than happy to back us up.

• Michael Piperno on Linkedin: “What used to take me hours now takes me minutes. Easily 2 hours saved per week.”
• Nathalie Tran on Instagram: “My engagement has increased around 999% on Pinterest!”
• Jennifer’s Fading Memories podcast: “I’ve made over $8,000 in podcast sponsorship since using Buffer.”
• Adriana on LinkedIn: “Buffer has been the player in my following growth on my personal LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, over 5,300 followers. I cannot imagine life without Buffer.”

Want to save time, increase engagement and grow your following? Click the link below to get started with Buffer today!

🖊️ Deep dive: What you need to know about how Instagram ranks content

This update from Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, about how ranking content works on the platform is a big deal for creators. But it’s a lot of info to digest, and it’s not always obvious how it’s relevant to you. So, here are four tips to help you improve your content based on Instagram’s algorithm reveal.

Before we dive in, forget the idea of The Algorithm™. Think of each part of Instagram as its own thing — Feed Posts, Reels, Stories, and Explore all have different algorithms. Your content needs to be created with the mechanics of the different algorithms in mind.

• Engagement is the not-so-secret sauce for Instagram success: The update tells us that your audience's interactions with your content affect its ranking, particularly time spent on a post, comments, likes, and shares. And this applies across all the algorithms. Your posts should always encourage interaction. Make your audience feel like you’re speaking directly to them by personalizing your visuals and messaging. Or add a simple “like and comment” in your visuals or the caption.
• Edit your content using the native, in-app tools: Algorithms are trained to spot things like watermarks and maybe even filters in a video. This doesn’t mean you must create a video from scratch whenever you want to publish on any short-form platform. But you must consider which platform is the highest priority, create your content there and publish everywhere else.
• Use all the features available for your content: Instagram has many features and wants you to use as many of them for your content as possible. So, along with the in-app editing tools, use IG’s filters and features, and add any information that can help your post along.
• Follow the rules: If you see a drop in engagement, especially one that happens out of the blue, it may be because you’ve violated a guidelines. Now, Instagram has two main sets of these: the Community Guidelines and Recommendation Guidelines. You might have published content that can’t be recommended because it might be offensive or sensitive. And if your content is flagged enough times, it can affect the rest of your posts.

🎉 Creators with Instagram Creator accounts…rejoice!

Share your Shorts and grow your YouTube audience with our content planning and scheduling features (Bonus: you can share one video as a Short, Reel, or TikTok while in Buffer! Short form video for the win 🤳)

👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• How This Ex-TikTok Employee Approaches Being A Creator: Ayomi Samaraweera details her experience in the creator economy and shares her top lessons and advice in this installment of Creators Unlocked.
• How to Automate Your Content Repurposing in 5 Steps (From Someone Who Has Done It!): In this article, Anna Burgess Yang details the automation process she uses for content repurposing.
• How to Build a Personal Brand (Using A Simple Framework): In this article, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step framework for building your personal brand.

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

“Pick me, choose me, love me” 💕

This is a really quick and easy Reel to try out! The audio says, “pick me, choose me, love me.” If you have multiple products to show off, you can show a different one for each section of the audio — so you just need three quick clips for this one!

Check out this example from @arionjewelry showing off their jewelry!

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• 📸 YouTube has lowered the eligibility criteria for its YPP (YouTube Partner Program) to get smaller creators in and earning sooner.
• 🎵 Instagram Notes now allow you to add music to your text updates and is testing a feature to add 30-second song snippets to your profile — be still my MySpace heart.
• 🤖 Instagram’s rumoured to be developing an AI chatbot experience for DMs (sound familiar? That’s because Snapchat recently launched a similar feature).
• 🔦 Reddit goes dark in protest of the platform’s new API pricing.
• 📖 Bonus Reads: This NYTimes profile on Mr Beast; this article on the phases of culturally-relevant brands; this guide to growing your email list.

Thanks for reading! 💟

What would you like to see more (or less) of in the newsletter? How do you feel about our deep dives or newsletter-exclusive series? Give us all your feedback in this form or let us know on all our social channels @buffer!

Unsubscribe | Update my mail settings 

Sent by the team at Buffer
2443 Fillmore St #380-7163 San Francisco, CA 94115 USA